Category Archives: TNGOP

Republicans have a pretty low bar in general (have you seen the nutbars in the Tennessee legislature?) but now Donald Trump has convinced many Masters of the Universe of all political stripes that they have what it takes to run the government:

“A lot of people are saying, ‘My God, if Donald Trump can get elected, anybody can get elected,’ ” said Steve Westly, a former eBay executive who ran for governor of California in 2006.

Spurred by Mr. Trump’s election — or at least encouraged by it — a contingent of rich, fairly famous and largely Democratic neophytes has begun to line up for some of the most important elections of 2017 and 2018, including for governorships in Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Nevada and New Mexico, and a mayoral race in New Orleans.

Right, cuz who needs experience! Can’t be that hard, surely?

Of course, Republicans have been doing this for years. Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Herman Cain, Kentucky’s Matt Bevin … politics is filled with Republicans with zero experience running for high office. No doubt this is because in the Republican Party, inexperience is more of a badge of honor than it is for Democrats.

“This is just about leadership and leadership around meaningful, purposeful work, and I started having conversations about public service,” Lee told the newspaper. “Ultimately, I just kind of said what it would be like to wake up in the morning instead of thinking how do I make life better for 1,100 Lee Company workers, how do I make life better for 6.5 million people?”

Lee described himself as a “very socially conservative guy who’s business minded.” He said his main priorities are jobs, education and public safety, but he acknowledged that his inexperience in politics could present a steep learning curve.

On specific questions of policy, Lee said he’s not trying to be evasive on issues, “but I’m just going, ‘Gosh, I don’t know if I would do this or that.’”

Gosh, you don’t know? Then golly gee willikers, Mr. Lee. Maybe you should sit down and figure some shit out first, y’know?

And as for this “public service” stuff, here’s a thought: try volunteering at Room In The Inn, or the women’s shelter here in town. Try working with some of the refugees in this community. Try reaching out to GLBT teens at the Oasis Center, kids who have been kicked out of their homes and have nowhere to go. You know, the modern-day equivalent of dining with the tax collectors that Jesus did back in the day (Lee supposedly opposed Metro Nashville’s non-discrimination ordinance prohibiting city contractors from discriminating against GLBT employees, so it seems he needs a little educating on some of these social issues).

Maybe before assuming you are ready for the governor’s office because you didn’t trash the family business your grandfather started (i.e., you inherited), maybe you should spend some time with the folks who didn’t get the leg up in the world that you did.

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) – More than half of the money a state agency has spent on Facebook ads targets supporters of Tennessee’s top Republican politicians, with none spent on Democrats.

The mission of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development is to attract businesses to the Volunteer State, as well as to let the community know what’s going on.

One of several marketing strategies involves paying for ads on Facebook.

What pops up in a user’s newsfeed may seem random, but Facebook can target users based on interests.

And if you “like” certain officeholders, there’s a good chance you’ll see updates from the TDECD Facebook page.

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development is a nonpartisan state agency, except they’ve paid more than $18,000 to target people who “like” Gov. Bill Haslam, Sen. Bob Corker or Sen. Lamar Alexander. Not a dime was spent on targeting fans of Democrats.

Well, sure. What have we been saying over here for the past month or so? Tennessee Republicans don’t want any more stinking liberals in this state. They don’t want to recruit those gay-loving, transgender-accepting, abortion-approving liberal businesses. They don’t want to be embarrassed by a scolding from lefty corporations when they try to pass gay-bashing, immigrant-hating, nativist legislation.

The Tennessee Republican Party has become ideologically distilled, “becoming the stereotype more fully and grotesquely” as its only means of empowerment. This is simply another manifestation of that. This is what I’ve been saying for years: Tennessee is where the Republican Party has gone to die. And die they will, because they are out of step with the rest of the culture.

It’s okay, I get it. I really do. I’ve said all along that if liberals really want to change our state, we need to recruit more blue people to move here. Don’t boycott Tennessee, immigrate! I’m only half-joking; it’s not a new idea, and has only been marginally successful when employed elsewhere. But just count me as not surprised that someone in state government cooked up this idea. It makes a lot of sense. It’s obvious the legislature is tired of political meddling by our state’s employers. If only they could recruit ideologically like-minded employers, that would solve everything! I’m sure new Tennessee employer Beretta USA will support a smorgasbord of gun-friendly legislation, right? And then when those candy-assed liberals suggest things like McKayla’s Law or mandatory liability insurance for CCW holders or universal background checks, they can point to opposition from a major employer and slap it with a “job killer” label. Nice.

So why would an agency that’s interested in developing businesses and creating jobs not cast a wide net to garner fans of all political parties?

The I-Team sat down with TDECD Commissioner Randy Boyd.

“Should politics be involved in a department that’s supposed to be apolitical?” asked reporter Alanna Autler.

“Politics is a pretty broad word,” Boyd said. “We have to work with the legislature and the legislature is always creating new legislation affecting things we do, and they are political. So in that sense, the politics of new laws and legislation do affect what our development and any department does.”

See, they’re not even denying it. They’re flat-out admitting it.

I’m dying to know which of our state legislators tasked Boyd with recruiting more conservative-friendly companies to Tennessee, though. You know he didn’t think this up all by himself.

I’m asking because Tennessee State Rep. Courtney Rogers of the “faith, family, freedom” caucus gave a seriously unhinged rant on the House floor Monday night and I’m starting to wonder what’s wrong with her. It came long after the House decided to defund UT’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion and redirect the money toward “In God We Trust” stickers for police cruisers. I know, that’s pretty crazy in and of itself, it’s the kind of hippie-punching nonsense the idiots in our legislature waste time on every day. But near as I can tell, Rogers had nothing to say when debate over that actual legislation was going on. But long toward the end of the day when business was concluding, she offered this ridiculous rant on the topic.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I know I’ve been visibly agitated on the House floor tonight, and for that I apologize, but I have an announcement from the Hawaiian caucus tonight.

You know, it’s not easy being a minority, I get it. But try being an endangered species. A Hawaiian in Tennessee. You know, my grandmother in Hawaii would go offer her lava rock offerings to the family god, the Aumakua. And then she would go to missionary school and pray to good lord Jesus because she didn’t want to offend all the gods, so she kinda missed the point. But that being said, missionary school taught servitude to minorities, and the Hawaiians had to fight for education, for English, for math, for science, and we got it.

And as I can see, here are minorities. They have it. If you want to help minorities then what I wanted to say here was yes, continue to shut down those specific diversity offers that waste dollars to teach us ways to somehow sexually abuse our bodies or tell us what not to believe. I would fight any office that would tell me I cannot pray to my family Aumakua, even though I don’t, or to the good lord Jesus. You know as much I would say no Christmas, no Buddha, No Allah, I don’t pray to any of those, but we have a thing called ideological freedom here in America.

If you want to help minorities then quit pushing this intellectual rubbish and start supporting those diversity offices that are recruiting the best, from light meat to dark meat, across the entire spectrum, and start pushing hard work and mental accuity. Those things bring about progress and success and equality. Mahalo.

What the hell is she smoking? Light meat to dark meat? Hawaiians in Tennessee are endangered? Minorities in Tennessee have everything they need so just shut up?

You can see her rant somewhere around the 2 hour and 58 minute mark here, during the announcements. What’s even more alarming is that she appears to be holding a piece of papers as she’s talking, so I wonder if she wrote this drivel down in advance.

Anyway, this is a whole new level of wackadoodle that I can’t even explain.

From comments, Candy nails something that Mr. Beale and I have discussed at length:

And those companies who decide not to bring jobs to NC because of the bill…. well, that’s just good riddance to liberal businesses they didn’t want there to begin with.

This is exactly right. It’s a type of hippie-punching we see in the South, where our legislatures are dominated by rural right-wingers but our states’ economic drivers are in the liberal urban areas. I don’t think Rep. Susan Lynn or Sen. Mike Bell, both from the hinterlands, give one fat whoop over whether Google Fiber leaves Nashville or if conventions flee our Music City Center. They’d think we’re just getting what we deserve! They would be perfectly happy if every liberal left Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga and Knoxville. They don’t care if our cities lose jobs, hell they applaud it.

These are not ordinary Republicans. They are radical ideologues, drunk on self-righteous indignation at liberal values. They are only too happy when Bruce Springsteen cancels his Greensboro concert and PayPal decides not to expand in Charlotte. This is what they want, after all.

They don’t feel the pain. For that, some Amazon.com fulfillment center in Murfreesboro (home to Sen. Bill Ketron) would have to close. VW would have to leave Chattanooga, and take all of their parts suppliers with them. The Gap distribution center in Gallatin would have to leave. The blowback would have to hit some of these job-strapped rural communities, the very places who elect the Fundiegelical Neanderthals to our legislature in the first place. Don’t punish Nashville, we’re not the ones who elected Susan Lynn to the state House!

But even then, would they change? Hell, no. They’d still blame liberals for “ramming our values down their throats,” even though it’s their own backwards over-reaction causing the pain. Why? Because there is no political solution to a psychological problem. Conservative ressentiment is a real thing. From that old chestnut by Julian Sanchez, gone from the internet but still surviving in the odd excerpt one can occasionally find on the blogosphere:

Even if conservatives retook power, they wouldn’t be able to provide a political solution to a psychological problem, assuming they’re not willing to go the Pol Pot route. At the same time, it signals a resignation to impotence on the cultural front where the real conflict lies. It effectively says: We cede to the bogeyman cultural elites the power of stereotypical definition, so becoming the stereotype more fully and grotesquely is our only means of empowerment.

Just let that thought sink in for a moment. Powerfully true, and unfolding before our very eyes.

Purpose: This bill would restrict bathroom use in public schools and colleges based on the sex listed on one’s birth certificate. The state faces a $1 billion federal penalty for Title IX gender discrimination violation.

Status: This had been set aside to summer study but was revised by a House committee. It will next be considered by the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday.

I haven’t read either the House of Senate version of these bills, and I probably should. The legislation was written to attack transgendered people, but it seems to me that it affects everyone. What about caregivers of the elderly and disabled, parents of small children, etc.? If you’re going to a game or sporting event at a public college and your wheelchair-bound parent, spouse, child, whatever needs to use the restroom, what do you do if you’re not the same gender? I think about this stuff because my mom was in a wheelchair for a few years before she died. She still went out and participated in community activities, and that meant using public restrooms in public places. Yes, I’ve changed adult diapers. What if it had been my dad? Which bathroom would we use? Or would we have had to shove the wheelchair in the bathroom and say, “you’re on your own, pops!”

Parents of young children deal with this issue all the time. Dads take their toddler girls into the men’s room, moms take their young boy children into the women’s restroom. Nobody has freaked out, near as I can tell. I see little boys in public restrooms with mom, I’ve managed to survive. What’s mom supposed to do with her 2-year-old now? Break the law?

What I don’t want is to be using the public bathroom and have someone with a full beard walk in, and not know if this is a man with a creepy bathroom fetish or some poor transgendered person forced to use the women’s restroom. What am I supposed to do, ask this person to drop trou so I can check under the hood? No thanks, Republicans. That’s waaay above my pay grade. This was a ridiculous “answer” to a non-existent “problem.”

Since Governor Pat McCrory signed HB2 into law last month, well over 1,000 jobs have been moved out of state, and over 100 companies, including Facebook, Apple and Stop Pack, have expressed concern or anger, warning they may move or cancel plans to expand, costing the state millions of dollars. In addition to that, by not hosting the 2017 NBA All-Star game, the state stands to lose even more. It is uncertain the exact figure, but in 2014, the All-Star game in New Orleans generated $106.1 Million and in 2015, New York generated approximately $195 million in economic activity.

On Sunday, Bruce Springsteen cancelled his concert in Greensboro because of North Carolina’s controversial new LGBT bill stating, “With deepest apologies to our dedicated fans in Greensboro, we have canceled our show scheduled for Sunday, April 10th. Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry — which is happening as I write — is one of them. It is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards.”

And while I concede some of this may be a result of state actions clarifying guidelines on transgender issues, I think most of it stems from an increasingly panicked conservative movement, which has watched helplessly as religion continues to die as America’s dominant cultural force. I don’t for a second think anyone really cares which bathroom people use. I do think conservatives are reaching the bottom of the barrel, however. Their key issues used to be abortion and gay rights and prayer in public schools. These were the issues that kept the donations flowing and the mailing lists refreshed. But those issues have pretty much been decided already. Those battles are, for the most part, over. The number of issues which will keep Aunt Edna sending in her $10 check to the FRC, or keep Uncle Elmer voting Republican, or make for a tasty election-year soundbite are running thin. We’ve gone from the big stuff to the increasingly ridiculous. 10 Commandments statues at the courthouse? Umm, okay, maybe that’s important to someone. Or an increasingly small group of someones (personally, I could give a shit. If that floats your boat, no skin off my nose, but it doesn’t mean jack shit).

But now we’re talking who uses what bathroom? How is this not an example of desperation? Of a movement which has completely run out of ideas?

DICKSON, Tenn. – Tennessee State Sen. Jim Summerville has been arrested in Dickson County on a charge of public intoxication.

Officials with the Dickson Police Department said Sen. Summerville was arrested Friday night in Dickson after he was seen walking down the street while drinking an alcoholic beverage from a glass mug.

Police said Summerville was spotted walking down the street while carrying a lawn chair in the McCreary Heights area.

Hmm. Okie dokie. Summerville is yet another of Tennessee’s crackpot racist Republicans known for “controversial” legislation like banning affirmative action. Oh, and there was that time where he said he “didn’t give a rat’s ass” what the black caucus thought. However, in August he was primaried, and lost to someone who could possibly be even crazier than he. In response, Summerville resigned from Tennessee’s Republican caucus and said he was henceforth an independent. In his concession speech, Summerville quoted Lord Byron.

In the irony department, when Summerville’s anti-affirmative action effort failed, this happened:

Last year, he proposed a measure to eliminate affirmative action initiatives from higher education institutions in Tennessee. After the legislation failed, Summerville threatened GOP lawmakers who voted against it, saying they would face repercussions in this year’s election.

Right. So the guy who said there will be repercussions for not doing what he wanted lost his primary and just got arrested for public intoxication. Brilliant.

Linda McFadyen-Ketchum, Moms Demand Action chapter leader, and Telisha Cobb wanted to change some state representatives’ minds about the bill. In the middle of a conversation with Womick, McFadyen-Ketchum said, he reached into a drawer, pulled out a gun and placed it on his desk.

Womick, a Rockvale Republican, denies that. It was a gun holster, he said this week, and he explained that he leaves the gun itself in his car, even though he is exempt from the Capitol’s no-carry law. That’s the point he was trying to make, he said.

McFadyen-Ketchum disputes that version. “Why would anyone pull out a holster?” she said. “I don’t have a photographic memory, but it was a gun.”

By the way, Womick claims he is exempt because he says he “works in law enforcement,” but according to his bio, he’s an airline pilot who received training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. Training is not the same as employment. I would love to know what his actual law enforcement job is.

And let me add, I am alarmed that a raging paranoiac like Rick Womick is running around both armed and writing our laws. Normal people are not scared that sustainable development is a United Nations conspiracy to further one-world government or that Sharia Law is a real threat to America. That is crackpot Glenn Beck shit, y’all. Anyone who believes it is so far inside the John Birch information bubble that they’re oxygen deprived.

And it gets better:

She and Cobb also met Rep. Mike Carter, an Ooltewah Republican, who told them there were lots of guns inside the state legislature, McFadyen-Ketchum said. Then he said some women carry firearms to defend themselves from rape. Carter suggested Cobb should do the same. Cobb said she’d take her chances.

Wow, was that a threat?

Thank you, Rep. Carter, for mansplaining to us ladies about how rape is a thing we need to be worried about. Gee, I was so busy thinking about shopping and clipping coupons that I totally forgot about that! /sarcasm

But let’s get back to the issue of guns in the Capitol:

In the course the meetings, McFadyen-Ketchum also snagged a Capitol security guard and asked whether lawmakers routinely kept guns in their offices. She said the guard told her there was a gentlemen’s agreement — the lawmakers don’t talk about the guns, and security doesn’t look.

The latest attempt by state lawmakers to nullify federal gun laws probably violates the U.S. Constitution, Tennessee’s attorney general said in an opinion released Friday.

Senate Bill 1756, a measure that attempts to block federal laws within Tennessee, would violate the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, state lawyers said in a terse, two-page opinion signed by Attorney General Robert Cooper. State lawyers note they reached the same conclusion on a similar bill a year ago.

Attorney general bill advances in Tennessee state Senate; on state House calendar this week

The state House version of a bill that would give Tennessee’s governor and the General Assembly power over the state attorney general is on a subcommittee calendar for debate Wednesday.

The state Senate version of the bill passed out of committee last week on a 5-3 vote and is set to be scheduled for a full Senate vote.

Supporters say the bill would make the state attorney general’s office more accountable to Tennessee citizens. The attorney general now is appointed by Tennessee Supreme Court justices, who themselves are appointed by the governor.

Bill opponents, who include Gov. Bill Haslam, say the legislation is a power grab that could violate the state constitution and politicize the independent office.

You know what? I’d like to see our representatives in the legislature be more accountable to Tennessee citizens first, ‘m’kay? We keep hearing about jobs and the economy being peoples’ number one concern, but when you elect Tennessee Republicans like Mae Beavers what you end up getting is a lot of culture war crazy and attempts to roll back the clock and re-litigate battles that were settled long ago.

And, yes. A special kudo to that crack legal mind Mae Beavers — and when I say “crack,” I DO mean influenced by illegal substances, as she’s so far off the rails, even her fellow Republicans can’t take her seriously any more. I simply cannot believe that there isn’t a person out there who can send this idiot packing. I mean, Tennessee Republicans, have you not thought about finding another candidate for this seat? Mae Beavers is kinda tarnishing your brand. She does not belong in public office of any kind, let alone in the state legislature.

But isn’t this just typical? The state Attorney General keeps telling certain legislators that their ideas are unconstitutional, illegal, even crazy. They won’t stand up in court. Instead of behaving like grown-ups and realizing maybe they might be, y’know, wrong, they just want to use their power to politicize the office and hire some Monica Goodling-type with a “degree” from the University of Phoenix to do their bidding. Power grab? Umm, gee, ya think? But this is what happens when you elect a bunch of people who are more interested in getting their way than doing what’s right.

Is Senate Bill 1607/House Bill 2145 (hereinafter “SB1607”) of the 108th Tennessee General Assembly, which would amend the “Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act,” constitutional?

OPINION

￼￼￼No.

Well, alrighty then. Now run along and play, children, and leave the actual governing to the grown-ups.

And let me remind Tennessee Republicans supporting this ridiculous Attorney General’s bill about one thing: pendulums swing. You won’t be in power forever. The day will come when Democrats are back in charge and get to have all the power you are grabbing for your Republican majority now. And you will not like that. And you will scream and squawk and whine and complain but you will have made this bed and you will have to lie down in it.

Gosh, I’m so old, I remember when Republicans were selling their brand as “compassionate conservatism.” Looks like Tennessee Rep. Scott DesJarlais forgot about the “compassion” part here, though. Watch him tell this little girl “sucks to be you,” as a Tea Party crowd cheers along:

The description of the video reads:

When Tennessee Rep. Scott Desjarlais announced he would hold a town hall on immigration, Josie decided to attend to seek his support even though it was at a tea party event of more than 200. Since her father was placed in deportation proceedings, she’s been going to therapy to deal with the anxiety.

Josie rose and took the mic, and in a trembling voice, said “Mr. Desjarlais, I have papers but my daddy doesn’t, what can you do to make sure he can stay?” Rep. Desjarlais rebuked her request to a round of applause from the audience, but Josie and her family will keep on fighting to stop his deportation.

DesJarlais, of course, is the “pro-life,” “family values” Tennessee conservative who became a national laughingstock after it was revealed he had pressured his mistress to have an abortion (I wrote about it here.) That hypocrisy so thoroughly humiliated the TNGOP that DesJarlais has a serious primary contender for 2014, so of course he’s going to toe the Tea Party line. But I never thought I’d see him be so cruel to a little girl right to her face.

This is “family values”? Riiight.

Adding … this is conservatism in a nutshell. A hypocritical serial creep who thinks repeating the bumper sticker slogan is the same thing as solving an issue faced by real families.

Our favorite Tennesseee Republinut is back in the news for demanding a TBI probe into who authorized a telephone poll of his district asking voters’ opinion of him.

Okay, to be fair, Campfield claims that some people were called over 30 times in one night. Who knows? Sounds like a weird form of harassment to me, but what do I know. Personally I think Campfield’s a ginormous asshole with the emotional maturity of a 10-year old whose raging insecurity-slash-narcissism has him dying to know who would dare poll his district. Hey: that’s just my opinion, dude! Freedom!

Seriously, maybe he shouldn’t have thrown House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada under the bus in a deposition related to his defamation lawsuit. Maybe he shouldn’t have said of his colleagues in the legislature that, “Most of them don’t even know how to turn on a computer.”

Maybe he shouldn’t have become the national poster child for Republican intolerance. Because I can think of a dozen people who would love to know if Campfield’s knuckle-dragging schtick plays with the voters, or if maybe this particular nutbush can be uprooted in the next election.